Says a Jury Could Find Liability Based on Labeling a Death a
‘Homicide,’ Resulting In a Woman Being Charged With the Murder of Her Husband

By a MetNews
Staff Writer

The Ninth U.S.,
Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday revived an action against a deputy medical
examiner by a woman who was charged with the alleged murder of her 80-year-old
husband based on the doctor’s proclamation that the cause of death was
“homicide.”

The
woman, Lois Goodman, was later exonerated.

Senior
Judge Harry Pregerson and Judges Mary M. Schoeder and Mary H. Murguia were in
agreement that the District Court Judge John A. Kronstadt erred in granting
summary judgment to Dr. Yulai Wang, but was correct in finding that no cause of
action existed against the Los Angeles Police Department.

Pregerson
dissented from the majority’s conclusion that summary judgment was correctly
awarded to four individual LAPD detectives based on qualified immunity.

Alan
Goodman’s April 17, 2012 death was initially attributed to a head injury
incurred in a fall on a staircase, and Lois Goodman’s account of coming home
and finding blood on the stairs and her husband dead in the bedroom was
accepted by police. However, an April 24 autopsy, performed by Wang, revealed
17 small cut marks on the body which were deemed “inconsistent with a fall.”

Wang
listed the cause of death as “pending investigation,” but on Aug. 7, changed it
to “homicide.”

New York Arrest

Lois
Goodman, then 70, was arrested Aug. 21, 2012, in New York. She was there to
referee the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

One
of the two LAPD detectives who made the arrest, David Peteque, appeared the
next morning on “Good Morning, America” to talk about the case.

Subsequently,
LAPD lab tests showed that Lois Goodman’s DNA was not on the coffee mug that
was believed to have been the murder weapon; the suspect passed a polygraph
test; and two pathologists hired by the District Attorney’s Office concluded
that the death was the result of an accident.

The
District Attorney’s Office dropped the charges.

In
the complaint for unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution, it was alleged
that police “knew or should have known that it was physically impossible for
Mrs. Goodman to kill her husband with a coffee mug” and “knew that it would
have been physically impossible for Mrs. Goodman to have carried her 180-pound
husband from the stairway to their bedroom.”

Falsifying
Autopsy Report

The
opinion, in reversing the summary judgment in favor of Wang, says that “[i]n
the light most favorable to Goodman, a reasonable jury could find that Dr. Wang
recklessly or intentionally falsified an autopsy report when he changed Alan’s
cause of death from ‘pending investigation’ to ‘homicide’.”

It
says that Wang failed to follow standards promulgated by the National
Association of Medical Examiners “requiring a coroner to provide a reason for
the change in cause of death” and omitted evidence that the decedent’s “injury
was consistent with an accidental fall.”

The
opinion notes that both pathologists hired by the District Attorney’s Office
concluded there was no homicide and one opined that Wang’s report was
“defective and far outside recommended national guidelines for quality of
work.”

Pregerson’s
Dissent

In
dissenting as to affirmance of summary judgment in favor of the detectives,
Pregerson said that incomplete information was presented to the judge who
issued the arrest warrant. The request for extradition was unnecessary, he
charged, because at the time the two LAPD detectives, Peteque and Jeffrey
Briscoe, left for New York, Lois Goodman was still in Los Angeles.

Although
the judge was told of the prospect that Lois Goodman would flee to Canada,
Pregerson noted her passport had expired in 1997. He added:

“Mrs.
Goodman claims that on August 10, 2012, her attorney called Detective Peteque
to inform him of her upcoming travel plans. Mrs. Goodman also claims that, over
the course of the investigation, she repeatedly offered to surrender herself in
the event that the LAPD decided to arrest her.”

Describes Ordeal

Pregerson
said of her ordeal:

“[O]n
the morning of August 21, Detectives Briscoe and Peteque publicly arrested Mrs.
Goodman as she left her Manhattan hotel, clad in her U.S. Open umpire’s
uniform.

“After
her arrest, the officers locked Mrs. Goodman up for two nights in Rikers
Island, a New York City jail renowned for its deep-seated culture of gruesome violence.

“Detectives
Briscoe and Peteque then flew Mrs. Goodman to Los Angeles. She remained m
handcuffs the entire flight. Mrs. Goodman spent the next two weeks at the
Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, California. Her family was only
able to post bail after a judge reduced the original bail amount of $1,000,000
to $500,000.”

Continued Effect

Pregerson
went on to declare:

“Nothing
in the record indicates that the LAPD is conducting further investigation into
Mr. Goodman’s death. But, because the charges against Mrs. Goodman were
dismissed without prejudice, this case continues to plague her.

“In
my view, no reasonable officer could have believed there was probable cause to
arrest Mrs. Goodman for murder. I cannot join in holding Detectives Briscoe,
Peteque, [Nick] Pikor, and [Pamela] Pitcher unaccountable for their actions.
Respectfully, I dissent from the decision to grant these officers qualified
immunity.”

The
case is Goodman
v. City of Los Angeles Police Department, No. 15-55757.